Excerpt from The Foundations of Legal Liability, Vol. 2: A Presentation of the Theory In this, the second volume of the foundations OF legal liability, the author has undertaken to work out along historical and evolutionary lines the fundamental principles of our law of contract. The same method has been here pursued that was followed in the writing of the first volume, and the same general aim has been kept in view. Nevertheless, the result is appreciably different. The former volume is, within its limits, a rounded treatise on the subject of torts; the present volume is more in the nature of a preliminary study of the law of contract than a rounded treatise on that subject. In the former volume we were able to preserve a very satisfactory balance between matter of pure legal history and matter expository of legal principles. In this volume we have been forced to lay more stress on matter of pure legal history than on matter expository of the existing state of the law. The reason for this is to be found in certain grave difficulties which were encountered at the very threshold of these inquiries into the law of contract. The existence of these made it nec essary that some preliminary work of a very searching nature should be done. The author accordingly set about the doing of this preliminary work, and the result is the book that is now before the reader. It was thought better to deal fully and exhaustively with the root principles in our law of contract rather than to attempt a systematic presentation of the whole subject. Legal theory in the field of contract was found not to be ripe for that rounded scientific synthesis which, it is to be hoped, will some day appear. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.